Black-fronted tern
| Black-fronted tern | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Laridae |
| Genus: | Chlidonias |
| Species: | C. albostriatus |
| Binomial name | |
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Chlidonias albostriatus (Gray, 1845) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Sterna albostriata |
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Sterna albostriata
The black-fronted tern (Chlidonias albostriatus) also known as sea martin, ploughboy, inland tern, riverbed tern or tarapiroe, is a small tern generally found in or near bodies of fresh water in New Zealand and forages for freshwater fish, arthropods and worms. It has a predominantly grey plumage. Restricted to breeding in the eastern regions of South Island, it is declining and threatened by introduced mammals and birds.
German Johann Reinhold Forster described the black-fronted tern from a specimen collected at Queen Charlotte Sound, Marlborough in 1832, giving it the binomial name Sterna antarctica, however the name had already been used for the Antarctic tern by Lesson the previous year.
The first valid description of the species was by George Robert Gray in 1845, who called it Hydrochelidon albostriata. Its specific name is derived from the Latin albus "white", and striatus "striped".Charles Lucien Bonaparte spelled its species name albistriata in 1856, which was adopted by subsequent authors until it was corrected by Walter Oliver in 1955.
Its taxonomic placement was unclear for many years, as its plumage and migration inland to nest suggested it belonged with the marsh terns of the genus Chlidonias yet it did not nest in marshes like the other members of that genus. Martin Moynihan described it as "the most puzzling case", ultimately placing it in Sterna as he suspected the similarity of its breeding plumage to that of C. hybrida was due to similarity in environment and observed that the nonbreeding plumage resembled that of other members of Sterna. Gochfeld and Berger (1996) followed in keeping it in Sterna, while Charles Sibley and Burt Monroe placed it in Chlidonias. A 2005 molecular study by Bridge and colleagues placed it as a basal member of the marsh terns, settling the issue.
The species has several vernacular names. Gray noted in 1845 that the Maori called it tarapiroe. It is called ploughboy or ploughman's friend for its habit of foraging for earthworms and grubs in newly ploughed soil.
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Wikipedia